It's nice and all, but the only real reason why anyone would buy this over SP4 is if they are very heavily invested in Apple. Nothing about this iPad says that it would compete with SP4.
Great article and so on it in too many areas for Apple to be worried which is a change of tune for me when I first saw the Surface book. I'm laying on my bed in my hotel room in Miami with my MacBook 12 inch retina on my lap writing this having just come back from the Microsoft Store in Dadeland.
I was all set to buy the Surface Book 1TB or the SP 4 but having played around with it for 20 minutes I have decided I won't be buying this or the Pro 4. Why follows:
1) Try using the screen as tablet only, it is too long and after a short while it gets awkward and feels heavy to hold.
2) Windows 10 and the app's that MS say are touch orientated is simply not. I tried to use OneNote in 'Tablet Mode', i.e. touch only and what a mess. When you touch the screen the onscreen keyboard does not appear. So I look for the key board at the bottom right but hey it's disappeared. The senior sales guy, I was referred to him as a result of the issue, said it was because I, as was everyone, expected to use the pen only. Since when did OneNote become just a pen, drawing application...? I said I used OneNote a lot and wanted to use the onboard keyboard. No not possible when in tablet mode. So basically I said to the guy, do you not think this is making the Surface Book a very niche product if you can only use OneNote, and many many other things, with a pen when in tablet mode?
3) At the priced quotes the OS and User Interface (UI) need to be slick, Windows 10 is smile not a touch UI nor is it a tablet that can compete wit true tablet designs, OS and apps designed for touch.
So I have gone from yep I want one to I might actually buy the iPad Pro. In short I have done a 360 degree turnaround on both products... Wow this tells me even more, touch before you buy. If you want to write lots of notes because they have drawings to and can only afford one key machine then maybe a Surface Book or Pro 4 but the drawbacks I feel are numerous and this is still a niche reason.
As basic laptop, $600 and a table from Android manufacturers or an iPad will serve the majority better. Oh and I will suggest, IMHO, that the go to device 80% of the time will be a tablet. Why, because it cover 80+ % of what we do 90% of the time, email, surfing, documents, note taking, games and so on.
So in summary I was underwhelmed when hands-on with the new MS Tablet's which was a shock. I walked straight out of the store and into the Apple store and bought my 14 son an MacBook 12 inch to replace his Surface Book 3 running Windows 10. I also did not end up ordering the 1TB Surface Book, wow, it goes to show you it's about the total package, hardware, OS, and software and currently that is not MS which is a shame as I was all set...
So this is the competition, I feel the iPad Pro will do well and MS won't be getting my money this time around, even with what look like a great product, it falls down in reality and as tablet the iPad Pro with continue to run rings around SP4 and Surface Book, it's a true table....